Oxford Commas
What is the Oxford comma, and how would I use such a thing?
Our March newsletter on apostrophes was quite popular—thank you! And, it yielded a request for a blog post on Oxford commas. Thank you, dear reader, for your request! We hope this month’s blog post and newsletter will be illuminating.
Take our quiz to see if you know how to use an Oxford comma:
The Oxford comma, or a specific type of serial comma, refers to the use of commas to separate items in a list, and specifically refers to the comma before “and” at the end of a list:
1, 2, and 3.
That one, before the “and,” that’s the Oxford comma. The comma after the “1” is just a regular serial comma—a comma separating two words in a series or list.
The Oxford comma has been controversial because one group of English folks thinks you don’t need it, and another group of English folks think it is essential. So, you may have learned to use it or not use it depending on which camp your 3rd grade English teacher belonged to.
Lucky for us, the United States government—not the grammar people—finally settled this issue for all of us in 2017 when it ruled in favor of the Oxford comma in a contract case. The abbreviated version of the case is this:
A group of truckers in Maine sued their employer for overtime. Their contract with the employer said “we will not pay you overtime for a, b and c.” The truckers argued that they had completed activity b but not activity c and therefore should be paid. The lawyers argued that without a comma between b and c, the contract suggested that b and c had to be done together in order to be exempt from overtime pay. The judge agreed.
Now, that example might be a little hard to follow. At least my dad thought it was, and he’s a lawyer. So, he gave me this easy, mathematical example to share with you all:
Let’s say my dad writes in his will:
I would like my estate to be divided equally among my three children: Jenny, Ty, and Katie.
How much would we each get?
Hopefully, you thought 1/3 each.
Ok, what if he writes this:
I would like my estate to be divided equally among my three children: Jenny, Ty and Katie.
Now how much?
If you are paying attention, you’ll see that an equal divide would now give me (I’m Jenny) ½ and leave my brother and sister to split the other ½, which means each of them would get ¼. Sorry, siblings!
This mathematical explanation illustrates the difference in meaning created by the Oxford comma. And, hopefully it helps you understand why the courts ruled in favor of the comma.
What does that mean for us? It means that if your writing has any potential legal consequences, you should be using the Oxford comma—so that’s pretty much anyone with a job.
If you are already an Oxford comma user (check quiz results), great! Keep doing what you are doing!
If you are not yet an Oxford comma user (check quiz results), then you should probably come over to the dark side.